


A Hard Place

by EmberForge



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Cute, Fluff, Gen, Set somewhere pre-all the shit that went down
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 14:28:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15463428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmberForge/pseuds/EmberForge
Summary: It's the little things that count.





	A Hard Place

Today, Molly decided to occupy himself with whittling.

Distractions were always good to have, and especially so if they could get you a bit of coin on the side. Molly was quite good with blades, big or small, if he did say so himself. It was a handy trick to have to impress small children at the circus, and he always loved to see their excited smiles when he'd slip them a little carved figure of one of the performers as a souvenir. 

Today's figure was a bear. He had found a good sized piece of wood after the Mighty Nein had set up camp for the evening, and decided to use what hours of sunlight were left carving away. The rest of the Nein were scattered about the campsite amusing themselves with a variety of tasks: cooking, or mending clothes, or cleaning weapons. Molly wasn't paying too much attention, entirely focused on carving out some delicate ears.

"Molly!"

The scratchy voice made him startle, chopping one of the ears off entirely and nearly taking his finger along in the process, if not for his quick reflexes. He glanced down to see that Nott had managed to sneak up beside him, looking up at him with wide yellow eyes.

"Hello, Nott. What do you need from me on this fine evening?" 

"Why does Yasha seem so grumpy? I mean, she just came back. Usually she's happy to see us when she gets back. Shouldn't she be happy?"

Molly glanced over to where Yasha sat a few dozen yards away, back against a tree as she stared off into the distance, seemingly lost in deep thought. She had just gotten back from another one of her sudden disappearances, and it had been absolutely delightful to run into her while on the road to their new destination, though she hadn't had much to offer by way of conversation as they walked along. Less than usual, even. "This may surprise you, but Yasha doesn't tell me everything. And this won't surprise you, but even if she did, that doesn't mean that I'd tell _you_. But she's not grumpy. Just a little... vexed. I don't think she found as much as she wanted on her last trip away from us." 

Nott looked over at the brooding barbarian. "She's been super quiet. Is she gonna be like that the whole time she's here?"

"No. She'll get past it. She just needs some time to process. But she's not grumpy, so remember-"

"-Don't steal from her, yeah, I got it."

"Good girl." Molly flashed her a grin as she scampered off, and he briefly watched her start to dig through her bag near the tents before carefully picking up his knife and seeing what he could salvage of his poor bear's ear.

...

Yasha's contemplative trance was broken by a shuffling noise on her left. She looked over to seethe unexpected site of Nott standing at her side, hand held out in a nonthreatening fist. "Yes, Nott?" She asked.

“...I heard you’re having a rough time. Here’s a shiny rock.” She felt a weight being placed on her thigh, then Nott quickly scurried away back towards the campfire.

Yasha sat there for a minute in surprise before picking up the small rock. It was a deep jet black with a jagged white stripe cutting through the middle, somewhat rounded and shined to perfection with age and friction. She looked over to where Nott was now sitting with Caleb, and saw the small goblin girl pretending not to sneak curious glances in her direction as she pretended to watch Caleb cook dinner.

Yasha closed her hand tightly around the rock, smiled, and carefully placed it in her pouch, right next to her flower journal.

**Author's Note:**

> From the prompt, “I heard you’re having a rough time. Here’s a shiny rock.” Saw it on tumblr and immediately thought of Nott.
> 
> If you've read my fics before, you might've noticed that I changed my username! I decided I wanted something more neutral fandom-wise, so here we are.
> 
> Liked this fic? Have a prompt you want to see me write? Tell me everything in the comments below!


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